What we tend to forget (or willfully ignore) when we talk about making music is that it’s not always fun. Or inspired. Or even creative. Sometimes, the flow of ideas dries up, inspiration flags, and it all just feels like work. Unfortunately, this holds true no matter how talented or experienced you are, or how successful you become. Case in point – a panel discussion on the topic of creative blocks at last year’s Loop summit featuring Matthew Herbert, Phoebe Kiddo, Young Guru and James Holden.

By any measure, that’s one talented, experienced and successful bunch of music makers – and yet, as the video below shows, the four of them describe how they struggle with the same issues of creative drive, self-discipline, focus and perspectives that all of us face. Fortunately however, since creative blocks seem to be a universal problem, any strategy that an individual develops to overcome them can also be put to use by anyone else (in fact, the moderator of this panel discussion, Ableton’s Dennis DeSantis, wrote a whole book compiling these kinds of strategies).

At the Loop summit in 2015 we dedicated not one but two discussions to the topic of creative blocks. Check out the audio podcast of the panel featuring Money Mark, patten, Kathy Alberici and Recloose.

Check out the super cool HTML-909 programmed by Teemu Kallio. This emulation of the Roland TR-909 drum machine made with HTML5 allows any user the ability to create their own analog drum patterns by simply visiting the website on the internet and you can play right from your browser. Earlier this year we saw the HTML Drum Machine that mimicked the TR-808 and also an in-browser TB-303 with the Acid Machine.

The TR-909 drum machine is a classic piece of hardware that has appeared in countless tracks in numerous genres. It’s one of the most recognized drum machines to ever built and critical to all genres of dance music.

Have your fun with the HTML-909 where you can also load and save projects. Make something cool and share it with the group!

I came across this interesting article by Ean Golden on DJ Tech Tools, that outlines Dolby’s new Atmos sound format. I have always been interested in these kinds of technologies, even though I have some doubts about their effectiveness. Have a read and let me know what you think. The following article has been re-blogged in its entirety:

Since night clubs are all about the music experience, it’s surprising that more time has not be spent on evolving the fundamentals of sound. While loudspeakers, speaker placement, and the quality of bass has improved dramatically over the years, the stereo format still remains king. With Native Instruments’ new Stems idea taking off, has the time finally come to explore new sonic territory? Dolby thinks so, which is why they are rolling out Dolby Atmos (multi-dimensional sound) in clubs.

Dolby Atmos: The Essential Low Down

Here is what we know, and can tell you now:

There will soon be a series of clubs equipped with Atmos sound systems around the world

Producers can put a dimensional “Panner Plug-in” directly on their tracks and designwhere the sound should be placed, or move it around on multiple axes.

The Dolby Atmos panner plug-in currently is AAX compatible

There is a Dolby-designed DJ software that plays back these special files and allows DJs to isolate and move parts around the room in real time.

This software is compatible with Pioneer CDJ-2000 NXS and DJM-2000NXS mixers – so DJs can play songs on a familiar control surface.

All mixing, panning, and effects are done internally, in the computer.

There will probably be a series of shows featuring this new technology with artists that have begun mixing their material in the format.

Dolby Atmos Club Ecosystem Requirements

Plug-ins placed in the mix record metadata for movement and position.

A fairly large file containing all the musical “objects” and their associated metadata for that song

A DJ software that can play back these files and send the movement information to the club’s Atmos system

A web of speakers around the room and on the ceiling, which playback the producer’s vision

In theory, the magical part is that the mix always sounds consistent from studio to club – regardless of size – thanks to clever spacial algorithms that can make sure the position and loudness of all objects stay constant. It’s important to consider that this represents a fundamental shift in thinking around music delivery. Producers would no longer be mixing music down to a stereo image, but instead placing objects in the room, with Dolby processors rendering the final results.

Why Build Dolby Atmos For Nightclubs?

Dolby is hoping that this Atmos experience will provide a richer creative pallets for producers and a more dynamic live experience for club-goers. With sounds coming from all directions, it should be a more immersive and exciting experience. With many clubs still running in mono, and most patrons in various states of alteration, we can’t help but wonder: will anyone even notice it’s in Atmos?

What Is Atmos?

What is Dolby Atmos, and how is it different from Surround Sound? In short, Atmos is a multi-dimensional format that allows film creators (and soon, music producers) to place objects anywhere in the room – including above the listener. This format can be translated to any other sized room, including small or big clubs. They do this with sophisticated software, hardware, and custom speaker installations that cover the entire room.

With a Dolby Atmos-enabled room, you can hear parts not only separated (like the vocals coming from just overhead) but in theory you can also hear parts moving around the sound space (hi-hats could rotate around the room).

“Dolby Atmos is not based on channels, but on audio objects. What is an audio object? Any sound heard in a film or song—a child yelling, a helicopter taking off, a hi-hat clanging, a bass line thumping—is an audio object. Artists using Dolby Atmos can decide exactly where those sounds should originate and precisely where they move as their experience unfolds.”

There are already many notable albums that have been mixed in Atmos and can be played back at home on Blu-ray including Roger Watters: The Wall – but this is their first foray into dance music technology.

My Personal Opinion

The concept of spacial multi-dimensional sound in clubs is intriguing, I have heard many demos in the studio and here at a San Francisco club, and yes, it’s a pretty interesting experience. With so much space, a producer has the ability to really separate sounds and not have them fighting for the same sonic/stereo territory. Of course, the downside is that this totally eliminates years of dance music production techniques, including:

Layering of sounds to create masking or harmonics

Mastering and compression to induce rhythmic pumping

If successful and adopted, this would create a completely new language of mixing that would need to be developed and evolve in its own direction. For example, techno produced for Atmos might become something completely different as the fundamental elements can take on such different sonic roles. One idea: the kick and bass have fundamentally always shared the same speakers with synths, putting limitations on which sounds could occupy the lowest frequency range. Now, with dozens of speakers backing up the standard club system, a producer can (theoretically) be more generous with his musical palette and frequency spectrum.

Ultimately this is very audacious undertaking, and it remains to be seen if all the required elements (clubs/DJs/music/promoters) line up, but we are excited to see any new experiments in sound that push the boundaries of Dance Music Technology.

There is no doubt about it, New York City is an expensive place to live. This has always made it an extremely difficult place to live for artists, many of whom require ample space and lack the cash flow to meet the demands of city landlords. While some have taken to looking outside the city, moving into outer boroughs and new communities out of state, affordable housing remains a pressing issue for New York creatives and city inhabitants alike. This recent article from Gothamist by Jen Carlson, talks about the housing issues for artists and the new advisor to DeBlasio, actor Steve Buscemi. The following has been re-blogged from that article:

Artists/everyone outside of a small, moneyed elite can no longer afford a comfortable life in New York City. It’s been discussed at length in the past few years, especially among the creative class, and most notably David Byrne. The Talking Head wrote a lengthy essay on the subject in 2013.

New York was legendary. It was where things happened, on the East Coast anyway. One knew in advance that life in New York would not be easy, but there were cheap rents in cold-water lofts without heat, and the excitement of being here made up for those hardships. I didn’t move to New York to make a fortune. Survival, at that time, and at my age then, was enough. Hardship was the price one paid for being in the thick of it. As one gets a little older, those hardships aren’t so romantic—they’re just hard.The cultural part of the city—the mind—has been usurped by the top 1 percent. What then is the future of New York, or really of any number of big urban centers, in this New Gilded Age? Does culture have a role to play? If we look at the city as it is now, then we would have to say that it looks a lot like the divided city that presumptive mayor Bill De Blasio has been harping about: most of Manhattan and many parts of Brooklyn are virtual walled communities, pleasure domes for the rich (which, full disclosure, includes me and some of the Creative Time team), and aside from those of us who managed years ago to find our niche and some means of income, there is no room for fresh creative types.

Both Shirley Manson and Emily Haines, frontwomen of successful bands, told us in the past month that they’ve been priced out of NYC. So whatareyougonnadoaboutit de Blasio? Well, he’s appointed actor (and former FDNY) Steve Buscemi to take control of this situation. We approve!

The de Blasio camp sent out an announcement yesterday afternoon, noting that NYC’s Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission had tapped Brooklynite Steve Buscemi to advise the Department of Cultural Affairs on issues like creating affordable housing for artists.

The Commission will meet with the Department of Cultural Affairs to advise on initiatives such as promoting diversity among our arts and cultural institutions by ensuring New Yorkers from every background are represented in a broad range of leadership and advisory positions in cultural organizations; creating affordable housing and workspaces so that NYC can remain a viable home for emerging artists; developing partnerships with local arts and cultural institutions to provide greater access to more New Yorkers; and developing the City’s first comprehensive cultural plan. The Commission will have its first meeting this winter.

After having SoundCloud take down my account this week I thought it would be important to share this information about changes now in place on the music platform. I have been a SoundCloud user for many years and I was very disappointed to have them ban my account due to copyright infringement from my podcasts. While I hope to have my account reinstated shortly, I have already focused my attention on my Mixcloud account. Please read this article taken from DJ Tech Tools to learn more about the changes not in effect on SoundCloud:

We’ve long warned DJs that they should not upload DJ mixes to SoundCloud – the popular audio sharing platform – because of the risk that their mixes will be removed for alleged copyright violation/s. It seems things have just gone from bad to worse in this respect, with a shocking piece of evidence that further reinforces that the platform really is utterly unsuitable for sharing DJ mixes on.

This week it has emerged on Do Androids Dance that SoundCloud has apparently granted Universal Music Group (one of the “big three” record labels alongside Warner and Sony) the right to remove content that it believes infringes its copyrights, without any involvement from SoundCloud itself in the process at all. This was revealed in an email trail involving a DJ called Greg Morris (“Mr Brainz” on SoundCloud) and the “SoundCloud Copyright Team”, in which they revealed to him that Universal is blocking content as it sees fit without SoundCloud’s involvement at all. Here’s that part of the alleged email trail:

What this reinforces, alongside years of evidence that DJ mixes are taken down regularly and without warning (everything from radio shows to amateur mixes, although curiously big names seem to get away with it more), is that increasingly SoundCloud simply isn’t a safe place to upload your DJ mixes to.

Now, let’s put aside arguments over copyright here for a second: After all, “mix tapes” have always been a grey area (are they exploitative or promotional for the artists featured?) and indeed, Warner (for example) actually uses SoundCloud itself, unlike Universal which conspicuously doesn’t. Plus, we’re not talking about DJs making moey from their mixes, after all; we’re simply talking about being able to share our work. Instead, let’s look at the problem for DJs and how they can solve this.

The problem is that you need a way to show the world what you bring to the table as a DJ, and DJs by definition play other people’s music. That means copyright issues, and we’ve hopefully shown you that SoundCloud does not have your back on this. At best, you’ll put a great mix up, share the link with your friends and DJs, promoters etc, and when they come to listen, it’ll be gone due to a dreaded copyright removal. At worst, you’ll lose your work, have no backup of it, and it’ll be gone forever.

The fact is that for material you own the copyright in or have permission to use, SoundCloud is a great platform (we use it for our artist interviews in courses like the Digital DJ Masterclass, for instance), but for DJ mixes, it really is a complete no-go zone.

Alternatives to SoundCloud

So what are you to do? As ever, we recommend services like Mixcloud. Mixcloud may look similar, but it operates on a different type of licence. One of the stipulations of Mixcloud’s licence is that mixes on the service aren’t downloadable (an option you don’t have to have switched on in SoundCloud either, and which removes one of the bugbears of the piracy argument, although as you can see, that won’t stop your mix being removed), and also it is harder to reach a big audience on Mixcloud than SoundCloud, but you’ve not really got much choice in that. Similar services include House Mixes and Mixcrate. Find one you like and rest assured they’re made for DJs, not producers, and so your work should be safer on one of these.

Alternatively, you could host your mixes on your own site. Of course, you’re still technically potentially breaking the law depending upon where you are and how / where you’re hosting your mixes, but if you’re doing it for artistic expression or promotional reasons (i.e. not offering or worse, selling, downloads) and you have both a bit of technical knowledge and a bit of cash for the bandwidth, this can be an effective way of getting your work out there. Respecting any copyright infringement requests that come in would likely be advisable (unless you want Universal’s lawyers on your back, for instance), but you are crumbs in their big pie and it’s my guess you’d never have an issue (Note: I am not a lawyer.)

Me? It has to be Mixcloud – worry removed from your shoulders and your mixes safely available on a smart, stable platform. But whatever you choose, please stay away from SoundCloud. They don’t want you and it’s getting worse.

]]>https://djvibeinc.com/2015/10/20/the-end-of-soundcloud/feed/0Music Theory Tutorial: Modes, Modes, Modes….What Are They Good For?https://djvibeinc.com/2015/09/23/music-theory-tutorial-modes-modes-modes-what-are-they-good-for/
https://djvibeinc.com/2015/09/23/music-theory-tutorial-modes-modes-modes-what-are-they-good-for/#respondWed, 23 Sep 2015 20:56:06 +0000https://djvibeinc.com/?p=2669In his latest exploration of electronic music theory, Dubspot contributorMichael Emenau a.k.a. MNO investigates the concept of musical Modes. Learn more about music theory and the music you love from the inside out in our upcoming Music Foundations course in NY, LA, and Online. Check out the course details and enroll today!

Modes

Anyone who has studied or Goggled around about music theory or musical scales will eventually come upon the term “Modes” or “Musical Modes.” If you poke a bit deeper, you will see that 95% of what people say about Modes can be broken down into the following three questions.

What are Modes?

What notes are used?

How to describe the Mode flavor?

This is all useful information, but I have always felt it left me hanging and wanting to know how to use the different Modes creatively.

In this article, we will briefly discuss the musical theory behind Modes as well as look at some melodic and harmonic examples of how you can effectively incorporate Modes into your projects.

A Mode is a type of scale. For example, Modes are alternative tonalities (scales) that can be derived from the familiar major scale by starting on a different scale tone. Music that uses the traditional major scale can be said to be in the Ionian Mode. There are seven Modes: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian.

Mode Construction

Let’s look at a couple different ways to construct the different Mode types.

1: Add a Sharp or Flat to a Major Scale

Ionian: Ionian is the same as a major scale

Dorian: Lower the 3rd and 7th notes a semitone

Phrygian: Lower the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th notes a semitone

Lydian: Raise the 4th note a semitone

Mixolydian: Lower the 7th note a semitone

Aeolian: Lower the, 3rd, 6th, and 7th notes a semitone

Locrian: Lower the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 7th notes a semitone

2. Change the Tonic (Starting Note) of the Major Scale

The C major scale has the notes C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C. If you use the same notes but start on the second note, which is a ‘D’ note (D-E-F-G-A-B-C-D), you will be in Dorian Mode. Using this same logic, you can derive all the Modes. For example, starting with the 3rd note of the scale = Phrygian, 4th note = Lydian, 5th note = Mixolydian, 6th = Aeolian, and 7th = Locrian.

We can see that all the same notes in the C major scale are being used, the only difference is the tonic notes used to start the scale. Changing the Mode allows us to emphasize different notes of the scale. There are many mnemonics for remembering how to construct the different Modes, but it is often easier to find the notes of a certain Mode in a specific key by looking it up on the Internet.

SO WHAT! It’s Just a Bunch of Notes from the Major Scale

There are certain ways we use scales to help define our melodies. The difference between C Ionian and E Phrygian is not the notes being used, but which notes are being emphasized. For example, looking at the C major scale again, Phrygian Mode would emphasize the ‘E’ note, which has a different feeling than emphasizing the ‘C’ note in Ionian Mode. It’s important to establish the tonal center for the mode you use in your music.

Below are a few examples of how to establish a tonal center for a melody.

Repeating the tonic: Doubling the note, repeating it, or using it as a landing note.

Position in the passage: Placing the note first and/or last note in a melodic phrase.

Dynamic emphasis: Increasing the tonic notes velocity.

Range emphasis: Making the note the highest or lowest in the melody.

Rhythmic emphasis: Placing the note on downbeats, or sustaining the note for a longer duration.

Bassline: Have the bass play the tonic or land on the tonic consistently.

Please note that these techniques are not assured to work 100%. These methods are good starting points to help grasp the overall concept of establishing the tonal center for a melody.

Once the tonic is established, the remaining notes in the melody will resolve in “natural” ways. By having a defined tonic or tonal center, your melody will feel to be part of the Mode in which you had intended. One of the main reasons why we choose to use a certain Mode is because of the emotional content that each Mode presents. Choosing a Mode is like choosing an emotion.

Mode of the Angels & Mode of the Dark Lord

Excuse me for being a bit ethereal in this description but one way to describe the differences between the Modes is how bright or dark they are. This example is entirely subjective, but I find the more sharps and fewer flats used in a mode, the more uplifting and happy the vibe feels. Concurrently, using more flats, the darker and more sinister the sound becomes. I feel this way because certain sounds, chords, and Modes are associated with certain emotions. For example, Lydian and Ionian Modes are used in happy and spiritually uplifting music. Mixolydian and Dorian Modes are often used in blues and gospel music. The Aeolian (minor) Mode is defined as melancholy and sad while Phrygian and Locrian Modes are the go-to Modes for scary, dramatic, and otherworldly sounds.

Below is a bright to darkness Mode chart. Notice the more flats, the darker the sound.

Lydian: 1 2 3 #4 5 6 7 (Brightest)

Ionian: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Mixolydian: 1 2 3 4 5 6 b7

Dorian: 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7

Aeolian: 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7

Phrygian: 1 b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7

Locrian: 1 b2 b3 4 b5 b6 b7 (Darkest)

OK, Let’s Add a Little Guitar to That!

Modes get really interesting when you associate different chord structures. Let’s explore this further with a C major scale.

When playing major keys, there is a classic set of chord progressions based on the 1st, 4th, and 5th notes of the scale. In C major, these chord changes consist of Cmaj, Fmaj, and Gmaj. This sound is so ingrained in our ears that we just consider it to be “right,” and there are 1,000’s of songs based upon these three chord progression. What’s interesting is that each mode has a set(s) of additional chord changes that work quite well at establishing the tonal center as well as inspirational for creating new melodies. Try experimenting with the following chord progressions when writing in different Modes.

Grand Conclusion

Using the seven Modes is a great way to open up your pallet to different ideals in composition. In the end, it doesn’t matter what you have written down on paper or programmed in your sequencer. If it sounds good, and it gets across the musical idea that you are trying to express, then it is right!

Expand your music theory knowledge further by checking out more educational articles by Michael Emenau a.k.a. MNO here.

Industry heavyweights in their respective fields have recently been harnessing the power of the pen. President Barack Obama submitted a letter to the editor of the New York Times, for instance, and superstar DJ Laidback Luke published an op-ed in Billboardaddressing payola’s place in dance music.

Payola is technically an illegal practice of record labels, where a bribe is exchanged for casting a product — track, album, concert, anything — in an artificially positive light. This is unavoidable in today’s era of primarily 360 deals, where labels profit from artists’ gigs, Laidback Luke laments. If rewarding customers’ Beatport purchases with money or gifts like headphones and tickets equates in a higher Beatport position for the artist, and therefore a more thriving career, labels are at a disadvantage to not engage in this behavior if everyone else is.

“My label Mixmash Records decided to give this a go earlier this year and offered a full refund in return for a purchase receipt. For some reason, this action drew a bunch of complaints and Beatport decided this was considered chart manipulation. So they deleted the sales result from the chart, which kicked us out of their top 100. Surprisingly, Beatport does not communicate what their rules are when they refer to chart manipulation, nor do they respond to other similar cases, which are allowed to remain in the charts.”

Payola extends beyond income and chart positions, Luke explains, and can dictate gigs that an artist can or cannot play. Payola helps determine artists’ clout, which can be more influential than a dollar tag. In these discussions between agents, managers, and promoters, the upper hand unsurprisingly often goes to the player with the most recognizable names. Beatport charts, Facebook likes, DJ Mag Top 100 positions, and other factors are currency in these negotiations, which is why so much time, money and effort goes into boosting those numbers.

“I’m currently doing an Asia tour, and one of the promoters told me that if she wanted to book a bigger-name DJ from a certain agency, she was often forced to book a smaller DJ — so-called packaging. I sometimes get tweets from fans asking me why I can’t come play in their favorite city, and in certain cases, that’s due to what festivals I’m playing. Due to the size and competitive nature of the festival industry, we DJs are often bound to exclusivity and territory restrictions that can cover various states or even countries, as well as any type of performance. For instance, at times I can’t play for a club run by a competing promoter for up to half a year after a festival took place — even if the festival promoter has no club available to me. Sometimes this means I can’t play a cool underground club for a few hundred hard-core fans if I want to play a festival main stage for 50,000 people. Both are important to do though, so it frustrates me.”

With the boom of EDM and the festival industry, and the increased presence of corporate investment, promoters receive many offers that they can’t refuse, which explains the prevalence of so many virtually-identical festival lineups. With this many hurdles to keep this complicated numbers game in place, there is barely any room for organic demand to determine billing, or fans to encourage new artists enough to garner their booking.

“We need quality artists and real talent to sustain this industry. Even from a purely economic perspective, what is happening makes little to no sense. We are not nurturing enough resources to sustain a reliable output. I’m a positive guy, and it’s all about passion in the end. Festivals like Tomorrowland, EDC and Ultra broke through because their passion for details was genuine. We are walking a thin line here by having this big, corporate takeover without a vision for keeping the scene alive. I, for one, am willing to fight for the real art of DJing. And I try and spread the word around how awesome it is to be able to produce and master tracks by myself and encourage others to do so too.”

The build of the bubble of EDM, and speculation on its inevitable burst, has been making headlines recently, and not just in dance music media. By explaining some back-end aspects of this bloated equation, Laidback Luke has opened the door for fans and industry folk alike to understand why this current balance is tenuous and to demand change.

“We all need to understand what’s going on and be part of this debate. Everyone needs to decide their individual role in this. Keep an eye out for real talent, real passion and nurture and develop that. Phonies won’t bring us quality, and they won’t sustain the scene. I’m not just only talking about DJs, but promoters, agents, managers, bookers and radio too. Everyone has their part to play. It’s all our responsibility to step it up and let it grow, rather than let it sink.”

]]>https://djvibeinc.com/2015/08/20/laidback-luke-pens-an-op-ed-about-how-payola-is-stunting-dance-music/feed/0UK Garage History & Family Tree: 20 Years of UKG!https://djvibeinc.com/2015/07/27/uk-garage-history-family-tree-20-years-of-ukg/
https://djvibeinc.com/2015/07/27/uk-garage-history-family-tree-20-years-of-ukg/#respondMon, 27 Jul 2015 14:53:44 +0000https://djvibeinc.com/?p=2615I have always been a huge fan of Garage music and believe that it has been critical in the development of the modern club sound. I came across this fantastic history of the genre on the Music Is My Sanctuary blogby Lexis & Dr. Love that I thought would be great to share. Make sure you check out the music examples they provide on their site and you can really hear the genre come to life and evolve over the last 25 years. I have also included the 3.5 hour Boiler Room set from DJ EZ where you can hear a lot of the tunes spun in context. It’s a really dope mix. Enjoy!

Foreword

It’s really pretty incredible that after 20 years, the influence of the UK Garage is still very present. From its early incarnations around 1994, British Garage has had a huge impact over urban music in the UK with artists like Dizzee Rascal, Burial, Wiley, The Streets, Ms Dynamite. It has achieved both underground and commercial success and manages to keep going in mini-cycles of pop crossover and underground credibility.

The family tree of UKG’s sub-genres is an absolutely fascinating piece of modern music history. In 20 years it has either directly created or influenced: 2step, Speed Garage, Dubstep, Bassline, Grime, UK Funky and not to mention all the other genres it influenced outside of the Garage spectrum.

Classic Garage undertones are still being felt in the present underground music landscape with the new wave of artists like SBTKRT, Jacques Greene, Disclosure, CRST, Falty DL, Mosca, Preditah and tons of others all paying homage to the roots of UKG.

Important Note

The history of UK Garage recap is an ongoing project which we continue to add to and will keep on improving.The focus here is about the music itself and a little bit less about the legendary clubs, radio DJ’s, pirate radio stations, etc. Those are also interesting subjects but we had 20+ years of music to cover so we focused on that. And yes, we are aware that we might have missed a few anthems here and there…If you have some feedback, feel free to let us know and we’ll make this the best article we can!

1978–1987: Paradise Garage

The origin of what we call Garage music today opened in the late 70’s & 80’s PG was initialy an actual Parking Garage turned into a LGBT club in New York city where legendary iconic DJ Larry Levan used to play an eclectic blend of soulful music.

Club Zanzibar, Tony Humphries & The New Jersey Sound

Solidified by a series of compilations released in the UK in the late 80’s under the title The Garage Sound, this became the recipe for describing US Garage: soulful house vocal emanating from the US, usually New Jersey.

1991–1994: Early 90’s U.S. Garage & Deep House

In the UK, DJ’s like Tuff Jam and Dreem Team started playing DUB mixes of US (along some Italian and Dutch) vocal tracks at a faster tempo in afterhour clubs/parties and asked local MC’s to get on the mic over the music as they were already doing in the Drum & Bass scene. This was a sign of things to come. At that point in the UK, it was called the “Sunday Scene” because all those parties were hosted on sundays as there was no interest from promoters in throwing these parties in big clubs on weekends.

1994–1996: Early UK Garage

Around ’94, the UK influences start morphing with the US garage/soulful house sound. It becomes slightly faster, tougher and more focused on the bassline while still keeping a lot of US influence.

Because of the high price of the US imports in the record shops, certain producers in the UK (such as Grant Nelson, Richard Purser & Warren Clarke ) started making their own Garage records with the distinct British flavour, giving birth to the UK Garage sound, releasing dubs on labels like Nice’N’Ripe and Swing City. A perfect example of this is Grant Nelson’s (24h Experience) version of Logic “Blues For You”, the american track from Wayne Gardiner aka Logic.

1996–1997: Speed Garage

While the garage house sound starts to stagnate in America, in the UK Garage it evolves and starts getting media attention. Drum & Bass studio engineers are starting to create their own vision of Garage and infuse it with that British touch. New sub-genres see the day: 2step beats make their appearence and Speed Garage is all the rage.

At this point, Speed Garage starts getting a lot of media attention and interest from the major record labels that want to jump on the bandwagon. Tons and tons of compilations start flooding the streets and the freshness of the sound dies pretty quickly.The term “speed garage” has always been a source of controversy: hated by pretty much everyone in the scene but used to sell tons of compilation CD’s. But still, this period is very interesting because you can start seeing the infusion of dancehall elements which have a incredibly rich history in the UK.

Around 1998 is when 2step fills the void and things come back to the soulful side of things with the main undertone being R&B and Soul rather than Jungle and Drum & Bass for Speed Garage

1998: UK Garage: It’s a London Thing

The hype around UKG brings the scene to new heights. the british press is all over it, UKG compilations are selling out, UKG artists such as MJ Cole, Tuff Jam & Dreem Teem are entering the charts, Garage events such as Pure Silk puts Ayia Napa on the map as a clubbing destination. The FM airwaves are taken over by UKG: numerous pirate stations are playing it 24/7… even major stations like KISS FM are jumping in!

1999: 2 STEP vs. 4X4

The UKG sound splits in two. Four to the floor vs two step. The trend is changing and the attention towards 2 step is growing, moving away from the traditional 4×4 beats. Up and coming producers like Zed Bias & El-B are bringing a darker sound to 2 step, paving the way for what we now call dubstep. On the other end of the scale, sampling U.S. R’n’B acapellas, top 40 artists are getting remixed into 2 step bootlegs bringing the ukg sound into more commercial areas, further creating a new wave of homegrown artists like Craig David. Major labels are commissioning UKG producers to do 2step remixes for the UK pressings trying to cash in on the trend which was until then, a white label culture.

2000–2001: UKG Y2K

The sound of UKG is morphing & going in different directions. The MC led parties created a new sound. Club MC’s inspired a new generation of artists which are taking the charts by storm. Artists like Oxide and Neutrino & the So Solid Crew are shaping up the future of UKG: Grime. UKG is now the UK’s version of the Urban scene in America replacing bootlegs by homegrown talent such as Artful Dodger, Mis-Teeq, Ms Dynamite & The Streets. “Original Pirate Material” becomes the first record that crosses beyond the club sphere and into the home listening vibe. Sign of the times : iconic duo Tuff Jam splits, making room for producers like Wideboys, D’n’D, Qualifide & Wookie amongst others.

2000–Onward: Grime

When the momentum of 2step / UK Garage pretty much stopped dead around 2000-2001, MC’s needed to have a space to express their voice and what filled that void was Grime… or 8bar, UK Bashment, Sub Low, Eskibeat or probably a million other names. Mostly, it meant the tracks coming from the end of 2step that featured MC-ing. Around that time most of the veterans of UKG either go into the moody sound known as Nu Swing (the direct ancestor of dubstep) or on the Breaky Side of things, like Zinc, Deekline and Stanton Warriors.

Grime however is the sound of a new generation of musical talents. A new generation of producers start making music as young kids on cheap PC’s and even video game consoles instead of pricey professional studios; it’s the rise of the first generation of bedroom producers and the internet really starts changing the game.

A track by Musical Mob called sets the foundation:”Pulse X” is a simple and effective track that influenced a lot of people to “under produce” their tracks and leave room for the MC. However, the quintessential early Grime riddim comes from Wiley and a white label called “Eskimo”.

2000–2002: Darkstep / NuSwing / Pre-Dubstep / Breakbeat Garage

In many ways one of the most interesting and influential couple of years in the Garage music. What the UK and the Garage scene has always done extremely well is after the huge commercial success of a genre, to go back all the way underground and go back to the drawing board. This period with a few weird names (darkstep, nu swing, etc.) is what set the table for the next 10 years…

In 2000, with the help of pioneers like El-B, Zed Bias, Oris Jay and Horsepower Productions they started building a foundation for a rougher sound influenced by dub while still keeping those distinct UKG drums. It was dark, jazzy, stripped-down but all with the 2 step swing to it. It very rarely have vocals on them and instead of being led by string or keyboard melodies, it was led by the bassline.

This period was the direct foundation for the dubstep movement. One of the best examples of this is how the Tempa label started in that era (first release was in 2000) and grew into one of the most influencial Dubstep labels.

Also during that period there started to be a distinct “Breakbeat Garage” sound fueled by the success of tracks like “I Don’t Smoke” by Deekline and other artists like Stanton Warriors, Zinc aka Jammin’. There was a wave of tracks that fused the 2step sound with the already strong but seperate “breaks” scene with people like Rennie Pilgrem.

2002–2007: The 4/4 Resurgence

The early 2000’s saw a wave of new talented producers pushing the 4/4 Garage sound forward while keeping elements of the classic 90’s sound. The biggest difference with the classic era of 4/4 was that the speed increased a little bit more and the sound was focused on dubs with a really bumpy feeling and really intricate vocal cut-ups instead of full vocals or “official” remixes of R&B tracks. A really interesting and prolific period because of new faces like Qualifide, DJ Ski, Duncan Powell producing alongside pioneers of the sound like Club Asylum (Jemery Sylvester), Todd Edwards, Karl Brown (half of Tuff Jam) and even El-B had outstanding collaborations with Karl Brown under the El-Tuff name.

2002–Onward: Dubstep

Quite fascinating that the only sub-genre of the UKG family tree to truly make a huge mainstream impact on the worldwide stage started as an alternative to the fall from grace of commercial Garage. When it was being played in 2002 in club nights like FWD the experience was truly about music, not about bling and champagne. The whole culture was about getting excited about listening to unreleased dubplates, while wearing trainers.

What is also interesting about Dubstep is that exactly like Garage, after blowing up it sort of became a dirty word that the people who set the foundation didn’t want to be associated with. Nowadays you say “dubstep” and most people will think Skrillex. It’s sad but also very normal that when a style rises from the underground it is eventually completely flipped on its head until the bastardized version of it becomes the norm.

We’re not going to go too much into the key players and founders of the sound because the history of dubstep has been covered pretty well already (check this great graph).

2003–Onward: Bassline

For a while in the early 2000’s, there was a lot less focus on the 4/4 beat music. Most of the attention was on the broken beat and rising from the underground, early Dubstep had all the momentum. In contrast, Bassline reincarnated the “bling” side of Garage: it brought back the girls to the clubs with music that was heavily influenced on Speed Garage (but a lot faster) while adding the pop feel to it. The best example of bassline’s commercial ambitions balanced with its underground roots remains T2’s “Heartbroken”.

A lot of key players in the bassline scene claim that it got its name as an alternative to Garage as in the 2000’s no clubs wanted any part of the Garage scene. You couldn’t put the word Garage on a flyer at that point without running into trouble. The focal point of the Bassline movement was a night called Niche in Sheffield, which helped create the sound but was eventually shut down because of gang violence & drugs. Ironic.

Some Bassline tunes still sound very fresh but it’s a style that not many big time producers jumped on. Yes, some anthems came out of it but all in all it was not the most fruitful movement of UKG. On paper, the idea of making speed garage which was around 128bpm even faster was a bit nuts. Dancing to a 4/4 beat at around 140bpm is a bit intense for a whole night innit?

2007–Onward: UK Funky

Just like UK Garage was started from the heavy influence of US soulful deep house records in the mid 90’s; UK Funky is what came after the british were influenced by the funky & soulful house scene of the mid 2000’s from people like Karizma, DJ Gregory, Dennis Ferrer. As with the creation of Garage, they added their own ingredients into the mix (soca, tropical, kuduro, broken beat) and the occasional MCing.

Like Bassline, UK Funky was definitely fueled by the desire to bring girls back to the clubs with more accessible and danceable tunes than nights (dubstep & grime) that had a reputation for attracting just dudes. UK Funky attempted to bring back the classy side to the clubs while slowing down the beats considerably from the Bassline House productions.

The current state of the UK Garage can best be described in two worlds: global and diverse.

Global because it is clearly not a London (or UK) thing anymore. Since the mid to late 2000’s, producers across the world have started infusing their sound with clear UKG influences and audiences have followed, creating pockets of scenes of UKG music across the world.

Diverse because there is no longer one sound or two being dominant for a period of a few years. Everything is happening everywhere all at once. New school Grime, the 4/4 resurgence of the 90’s sound, ex-Dubstep producers making Techno and Footwork. The current state of the scene is absolutely inspiring but also dizzying. It’s hard to keep up with the amount of new talent like Preditah, Swindle, Flava D, Visionist, MssingNo and others doing big things for the underground. It’s also great to see that new more mainstream acts like Disclosure are opening up a generation’s ears to UK Garage without them even realizing it.

I don’t care that I supposedly understand how vinyl records work because I still totally think they’re the work of at least some low level sorcery. Trapping sound and music and voices? Come on! Anyways, my disbelief aside of analog technology aside, here’s a cool microscope view of vinyl records being played.

The video by Applied Science also delves into how they managed to capture the footage using an electron microscope. A little bit technical but really interesting stuff.

In general, the Apple Music unveiling received a ho-hum reception from the music biz rank and file. But those who have had a chance to drill down on the guts of this intricate but elegant creation are more optimistic. Indeed, some feel that it could be an epic sea change in a truly unprecedented commercial marriage of artist development, content and technology. Now, wouldn’t that be something?

What has been so consistently compelling about Beats and Apple’s track records is their shared cool factor. How does the biggest corporation in the world appear to be so consistently sexy? Jimmy Iovine’s M.O. has always been about getting the cool kids first and having those peer group leaders lead the rest. He did it in breaking acts at Interscope and subsequently with Beats Electronics. Iovine observers say that this will happen again with the new acts that are discovered through this new platform, and that Apple Music is really a giant laboratory for finding the next big thing. Big acts are no longer appealing to these cool kids who are the peer group leaders of this generation. Iovine and co. need to connect with them in order to stay relevant in the ever-shifting pop cultural spectrum. Get the kids and the rest will follow.

The Beats and Apple crews should be able to identify the most intriguing new and unsigned artists and fast-track their commercial progress. They’ll scrutinize the platform not only as curators but as A&R experts and readers of the pop-cultural tea leaves. iTunes has been doing just that on certain acts for years now. And now, iTunes content guru Robert Kondrk and his editorial team will mirror what they do with the gateway page of the iTunes Store—one of the biggest looks a piece of music can get—in controlling the look and placement of product inside the streaming interface.

Artists will be posting their music both behind the Connect paywall if it’s available on iTunes and in front of it if it’s promotional in nature. This feature will enable subscribers and non-paying listeners alike to discover these new musical offerings, with the possible result that they wind up on global online radio station Beats 1, the other stations and the curated playlists that are a key part of the streaming service. Those unaffiliated artists who own their masters and publishing will get the entire 72% cut of revenue not taken by Apple, and that could constitute a big score if Apple Music breaks them. Can new artists become extremely successful without a label, with their marketing in effect done by Apple? How would such a result impact the traditional labels going forward? Apple Music could not only benefit the labels financially via a massive cash infusion but also creatively, as it becomes a potent A&R source, discovering and passing along viable new artists for further career development.

Ian Rogers is the architect of Beats 1 and the other radio stations; he also oversees the curation of the various streaming playlists, which are being assembled and constantly updated by hundreds of genre and lifestyle specialists—clearly a massive undertaking. Both teams will closely monitor activity within the Connect community of participating artists, looking for the stickiest musical offerings on both sides of the paywall; this will serve as both a creative petri dish and a springboard for the all-important hit-prediction factor.

Can Zane Lowe, fellow ex-BBC Radio 1 colleague Julie Adenuga, Hot 97’s Ebro Darden and the Beats 1 team create and maintain a worldwide 24/7 radio stream that gains serious traction? The process will be similar to that employed by Lowe, his Radio 1 show producer James Bursey and fellow Radio 1 producers turned Beats 1 staffers Natasha Lynch and Kieran Yeates. Beats 1 won’t be research- or format-driven radio; instead, it will be personality-driven, a source for discovering great music, with a clear-cut focus on young, credible bands and artists, offering listeners a generous helping of taste and culture 24 hours a day, every day.

In a best-case scenario, Lowe and his posse could have millions of listeners responding to what they play. It’s long been the dream of virtually every artist, producer and A&R exec frustrated by radio and its fickle nature to be able to call the shots and have the listener decide if they agree with offerings presented to them that are based purely on taste. Now, it seems, a modern-day version of that dream is about to become a reality.

Over the last week, we’ve seen Grammy-nominated DJ and producer Mat Zo begin highlighting what he feels like is one of the biggest issues in the electronic dance music scene right now: the use of ghost producers. With the help of a few other Twitter sleuths, the Fake Producers Intelligence Agency, and a keen eye on ASCAP’s writing credit entries, we’re seeing a bunch of ghost producers for big name acts revealed.

The cool people came with their money and ghost producers and us nerds had to start competing with then

Who’s On Blast?

There’s been a few people on Twitter who have compiled and doing their best to figure out exactly what producers are operating as a ghost producer for major artists. In addition to Mat Zo and the Fake Producers Intelligence Agency, another producer Kloak has been keeping a running list of ghost producers:

It’s a bit hard to read – but on each line, the ghost producer is before the hypen on each entry. What’s really interesting is that some of these producers are clearly making a career out of producing for big tracks – look at Maarten Vorwerk, who apparently has written songs for Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, DVBBS, Danny Avila, Quintino, Yves V, Spencer Tarring, and Helena. That’s a lot of success for someone who isn’t a well-known name themselves.

Of course, not every person on here is upset about being a ghost producer – some producers are happy to help out another artist on a track in exchange for money (or not!) – but ultimately it starts to feel a little questionable when a lot of one artist’s songs have someone else working on writing the track.

How Can You Be Sure? Using ASCAP’s Catalog

When big names acts use ghost producers, they might agree to give them a song writing credit (if the ghost producer is very lucky) – which for the most part is completely ignored. But to properly track the rights on a song, artists and labels have to give a complete list of writing credits to music performance rights organizations like ASCAP. ASCAP has a public-facing title search engine that allows anyone to look up the exact list of writers (this includes all co-producers) on a track.

Very quickly you can start to see some of these names come up time and time again for certain artists – this is a major clue in finding ghost producers. Of course, not everyone listed on a song is a ghost producer, some of them might be contributing in other ways.

The Moral Thing To Do

There’s an interesting moral discussion to be had around ghost production – on one hand, using a ghost producer and taking full credit for it yourself feels incredibly wrong to a lot of people. In non-electronic music, if you invited another person to come work on a song with you and play instruments and rewrite the song, you either called them your producer or a member of your band. But now there’s an industry behind silent producers – so much so that there was even a massive ad for the services in a recent issue of DJ Mag:

We also have to assume that there are loads of ghost producers who are not and will never get revealed to the public, as well as many more who are paid incredibly poorly and never given a percentage of a major hit song’s income. This seems borderline abusive – and all producers who ever write tracks for another artist should push to be credited and paid according to the song’s success. The names that show up in ASCAP title listings are the lucky ones. We’re betting that there are hundreds more who deserve recognition for the success of some big name artists who will never be revealed.

]]>https://djvibeinc.com/2015/06/08/mat-zo-the-fpia-take-aim-at-djs-using-ghost-producers/feed/07 Secrets Of Good Music Organization For Digital DJshttps://djvibeinc.com/2015/05/18/7-secrets-of-good-music-organisation-for-digital-djs/
https://djvibeinc.com/2015/05/18/7-secrets-of-good-music-organisation-for-digital-djs/#respondMon, 18 May 2015 16:14:57 +0000https://djvibeinc.com/?p=2558

I came across this helpful article from Phil Morse over at Digital DJ Tips on organizing your digital music. I hope you find it helpful. Here it is presented in its entirety:

Today’s post is inspired by Digital DJ Tips member Jason Nappier, who writes: “I’d like more insight about programming and organization. I have a ton of music, but it is all dumped on my hard drive. When I used CDs and even back in my vinyl days, I knew where everything was, so if I needed an idea, I would just flip through and something would jump out at me quickly. Without that organization, I find myself blanking and scrolling through mountains of junk before seeing a song that fits with where I’m going, which causes a lot of stress and a disjointed performance. Can you help?”

It’s an extremely common problem, and one I battled with personally for many years as I converted to digital. Especially for DJs used to vinyl and CDs, coming to digital – where there’s just a whole list of files in a browser – can take the soul out of owning music. It can lead, as he says, to “blanking and scrolling”, when you should be intimately interacting with your beloved music, tunes just jumping out at you as you play.

I have tried all types of music organization techniques over the years, and realized that there are some principles that – however you decide to do it – can make the daunting task seem less so, and ultimately move you beyond vinyl and CD systems into having a digital music organization system that works great. So here are some time-trusted techniques for taming a digital music collection, with special emphasis on helping DJs coming from a vinyl or CD background.

MY 7 KILLER TIPS

1. Use a separate program to organize your music – Your DJ program is simply your “DJ booth”. It’s where you perform from. When it comes to organizing your music, use something else. For most people it is iTunes, because the work you do in there shows in your DJ software seamlessly. iTunes is your shelves of vinyl or your racks of CDs, organized how you choose

2. Pack a “crate” for every gig – CD and vinyl DJs never take their whole collection to a gig with them. You shouldn’t either. Instead, “pack” a playlist full of about twice the number of tunes you think you’ll need for any given event. Put your soul into choosing those tunes. Spend hours doing it, and be strict and only play from that playlist or folder within your DJ software at your event (whether that event is a new mixtape, a web radio show, or a “real” gig). This will force you to think harder about your music choices ahead of time, and stop the blanking and scrolling syndrome you speak of

3. Have less music – Your collection is almost definitely too big. What happens with vinyl is you have a go-to “area” of your collection and whole “no go” zones of stuff you rarely look at. With digital, everything tends to get lumped together. Worse, you tend to collect much more as digital files are cheaper and take up less (no) room. But it’s a trap. A lean, mean music collection keeps you focused on quality, so regularly prune stuff out. If you haven’t played it for a year, or ever (there’s a column to show you that), strongly consider deleting it or moving it to a “never played” folder or backup hard drive, and out of your main searchable library completely. Oh, and keep all non-DJing music out of iTunes entirely. Figure out another place for that stuff

4. Add cover art to your tunes – Especially for tunes you used to own on vinyl or CD, adding the correct cover art (and by correct, I mean the art you remember from your old physical copies) can give you a great visual aid and let you “flick through” your music in the same way you were used to back in the day. It’s easy to use Google Images to find the cover art you’re used to, and takes seconds in iTunes to then add or replace the picture associated with each music file to make it the one you want

5. Use digital’s sort features to your advantage – With physical vinyl or CDs, you used to have to have a sorting system and stick with it (alphabetical, by genre, by date purchased etc.) With digital, you can use all of these and more. You can sort by genre, BPM, date of release, date added, alphabetically by artist, alphabetically by title, even by key. So do it! As you’re planning your sets and packing your crates for gigs, use all the sort tools to slice and dice your music and reduce it to more meaningful “chunks” than one big collection. By using smart playlists in iTunes, you can get even more granular (“everything from 1988 to 1992 marked house and techno”). Oh, speaking of genres…

6. Be bold with genre names – It’s tempting to leave the “genre” name as it was when you bought a music file, but that’s nonsense. If you play house and house only, having every track marked “house” is not going to help you sort your music. But if you’re a mobile DJ who plays everything from country to EDM to rock, having big categories such as, well, “country’, “EDM” and “rock” may be far more useful than “deep house”, “UK garage”, etc. Point is, you need to choose the six to 10 categories that make sense to you and replace the “genre” information in your files with one of those, for every song. When you sort or filter by genre, the tracks you’ve associated with each other should “feel” like a coherent set of music to you, something you could make a strong mixtape or DJ set from

7. Use the comments field to your advantage – DJs used to put stickers on their tunes “back in the day” with info like key, BPM etc. Of course, that info can now be displayed digitally for you, but you can use the “comments” field in iTunes and your DJ software to add other useful info for memory association among songs and to make tunes more searchable. I like to use “MWW” followed by the name of another tune in a tune’s comments field to mean “mixes well with”: It jogs my memory for a great next tune when I am playing a tune I’ve tagged this way, and you can add such tags while you’re out DJing so you don’t forget a great mix

FINALLY…

When you start thinking about your files, folders and playlists the same way vinyl and CD DJs think about their physical collections, you reap the benefits of digital and negate the drawbacks. Soon you move way past what vinyl and CD DJs can do, realizing that things like the history features in your DJ software (that show you what you’ve played at your gigs), and the awesome sorting, filtering and smart play listing functions in iTunes, move how you can interact with your music way beyond physical media.

My final tip is simply to ensure that when you’re in iTunes sorting your music, improving your tagging, adding artwork etc, make sure you always have something playing! Above all of this, just listening to your music is the most important thing of all. Don’t sit in a silent room re-tagging all your music for hours on end – it kind of defeats the object of this, which is of course to get to know your music better so you can play better DJ sets with it.

Shazam has been an integral part of the music discovery landscape over the last 15 years, with the smartphone revolution fueling the adoption of the service as the ubiquitous solution to the question “What is the song playing right now?” In the DJ world we’ve watched as the app has also become one of the best tools for trainspotting (picking out the playing track in a DJ’s mix), thanks in no small part to integrating Beatport’s complete music library in 2013 and even adjusting their algorithm so that BPM adjustments made by a DJ don’t impede the tool’s usefulness.

At the Strata+Hadoop data conference in London this week, Shazam put together an incredible presentation that give us a hint into how they’ve become the best representation of Big Data that we’ve seen in the music industry. The presentation starts off showing how the service’s data can actually do a pretty good job of predicting a hit prior to it getting serious radio play, using the example of a Clean Bandit track.

The rest of the presentation then gets even more interesting for DJs, however. Shazam data can be used to figure out what part of a song is the most interesting to a listener (example below – although who didn’t know that Nicki had the best verse on Monster?) Imagine what this could mean for remixers – instantly being able to identify the most significant part of a song and bringing that into a mix or production.

Shazam can even track the success of a song after it gets remixed – if you live in Europe, odds are pretty good you’ve heard the Felix Jaehn remix of Omi’s “Cheerleader” – which in turn helped the original song blow up.

One of the best bits was seeing how DJs directly impact the Shazam charts and ultimately influence the popularity of an artist. In the presentation, Shazam’s VP of Product Cait O’Riordan uses Tchami as an example – who has a “spikey” graph that peaks weekly on Fridays and Saturdays when DJs spin his tracks in the club.

In the world of dance music, few have amassed as stellar a resume — or rocked as many clubs and festivals around the globe — as Dutch superstar and trance pioneer Armin van Buuren.

The globetrotting producer and DJ has been crowned with the coveted number-one ranking by DJ Magazine five times in his career and his work has earned him fistfuls of additional awards and nominations worldwide.

In addition to releasing five albums under his name, he is the host of A State of Trance, a weekly radio show heard by over 33 million listeners via more than 100 FM stations around the world.

Here’s what van Buuren had to say about crafting body-shaking beats, collaborating in the studio, at his kitchen table, and across oceans, and how Apple Logic Pro X and UAD Powered Plug-Ins give him the sonic firepower to entrance audiences, night after night.

A State of Trance, has been enormously successful. Did you expect it to still be going?

I always envisioned doing A State of Trance just for a couple years and then moving on, but the trance genre is currently reinventing itself. New guys like Mark Sixma, Jerome Isma-Ae, Orjan Nilsen, Andrew Rayel, and David Gravell are bringing new and fresh sounds.

It’s a lot of fun, as a DJ, to be in the middle between the audiences and producers, passing along the music and following the development of this sound that I like the most.

I always told myself that I wouldn’t continue A State of Trance just for the sake of doing it. The music has to be inspiring. I’m very glad to say that, every week, two hours isn’t enough. I usually have enough music to fill three or four hours with good, inspirational tunes. I have to go through all of the new trance music for my DJ sets anyway, so it’s convenient. [Laughs.]

You collaborate with a lot of producers and musicians. How do these typically originate?

The most honest answer is that I don’t have a standard way of working. Sometimes people approach me with a good vocal idea, but every track comes together in a completely different way.

A lot of times, I start on piano and send demos out. The song “This Is What It Feels Like” began with a Rhodes part in 6/4, which is a strange time signature for dance music, but the vocalist [Trevor Guthrie] was able to do a great job on top of it.

And the track “Feels So Good” from my album Mirage started in my kitchen, actually, with my brother just sitting and playing guitar on a sunny day.

I like to be inspired by sounds and moments. I don’t always start with four kick drums and a bass line and build the groove and breakdown from there. Sometimes just hearing a good groove can inspire ideas. For me, there really is no “golden” way of working.

How often do you create your own sounds, as opposed to using pre-existing samples or patches?

For synths, it’s about 50/50, using pre-existing banks or creating our own patches. We record a lot of real instruments, too.

The title track from Intense, for example, featured Miri Ben-Ari on violin. I had finished the track with a MIDI violin part and went to New York to record Miri there in Pro Tools. Then we took the raw files and finished the project in Logic back here at my home studio in Leiden, Holland. To finish things up, all of the files then went back to New York for mastering at The Lodge.

One of your longest standing collaborations is with producer Benno de Goeij (Rank 1, Jochen Miller). Can you describe your workflow when you’re tracking and mixing together?

Benno is a good friend. When we’re working together, we often start with a vocal or melody idea, or another track that has a good sound that we want to recreate. I do most of my work in Logic Pro X and, within that, I love the possibilities for using MIDI.

How does your choice of Logic Pro X for your DAW affect your and Benno’s workflow?

What I love about Logic Pro X is that you can import channel strips, including MIDI and bus routing. The way Benno and I work is, everything is hooked up to an old Apple server upstairs from my studio. That houses all of my samples and it’s fast enough that I can work from one server and have two projects open and streaming from it at the same time. Then Benno and I can each open the same project and, search for bass lines, import entire channel strips with MIDI or audio information, automation, or whatever, and efficiently combine our ideas.

How do you guys monitor during these sessions?

We like to have one of us on headphones at one DAW, and the other sitting on the main PA checking out a mix, working on a mixdown, or arranging another track. Both DAWs have the same settings, so it’s easy to open all projects in both DAWs. It’s heaven working like this.

We usually route everything through buses — one for kick, one for bass, one for synth leads, one for vocals, one for effects. We do that to create headroom in the mix. You don’t want your leads to go above -10dB, and you don’t want your kick above -10dB either.

When you mix, do you compress the master bus?

For our own reference, we make a full version that we’ve compressed the hell out of it to make it sound really loud.

When we send a track out for mastering, however, we give them a non-compressed, non-limited version that has headroom of at least 6 dB. That way, the mastering engineer can still add EQ and effects and have some space to play with.

The loud reference mixes we make for ourselves are very useful for me on the road. As a DJ, I play every weekend, and those mixes are perfect for road-testing my tracks. That’s a golden rule — even if it’s just a draft of a track — if there’s something wrong with an arrangement, you will hear it on the dance floor.

When we send a track out for mastering, however, we give them a non-compressed, non-limited version that has headroom of at least 6 dB. That way, the mastering engineer can still add EQ and effects and have some space to play with.

The kick is such an important part of dance music. How do you craft yours?

I recently got into the Xfer Nerve software drum machine, which lets you combine sounds to make your own kick drum. Usually, we take the top of an existing kick drum and add our own low end, which is often just a synth filling out the oomph that we need. Then we put a compressor on there to make the kick drum more snappy, to help it blend, and to make the sound whole

What are some of your go-to UAD plug-ins for sculpting low-end in a mix?

Another favorite is the the Pultec Passive EQ Collection. I like to use it without any boost — just insert it and it gives you a wonderful tool for blending live elements with synths — just by going through the virtual circuitry.

I use the SPL Transient Designer plug-in on almost every one of my drums. It helps get a great attack on the sound. You want the transients to shine through and “wow,” that plug-in does it like no other.

I also love the Precision De-Esser plug-in, and those are usually on our vocal tracks. The Teletronix LA-2A sounds amazing on vocals as well. The FATSO Jr./Sr. Tape Sim. & Compressor plug-in is also a good one on drums specifically, to make the snare sound a little more crisp.

Do you marvel at how your workflow has changed over your career?

Yes. I come from the world of old-school MIDI production. When I was making tracks in ’96, I had a big Apple G3, a lot of outboard gear, a big mixer, and DAT machines. Now, plug-ins offer so many possibilities — but for some reason, I keep maxing out every system I have! [Laughs.] I love UAD because you can just keep adding plug-in after plug-in and really stretch the boundaries of what you’re able to do. They’re essential to me now. I can’t live without them.

]]>https://djvibeinc.com/2015/04/24/legendary-producerdj-armin-van-buuren-on-the-power-of-uad-plug-ins/feed/0Moby talks Hotel:Ambient, creative freedom, and making a living in the EDM agehttps://djvibeinc.com/2015/03/23/moby-talks-hotelambient-creative-freedom-and-making-a-living-in-the-edm-age/
https://djvibeinc.com/2015/03/23/moby-talks-hotelambient-creative-freedom-and-making-a-living-in-the-edm-age/#respondMon, 23 Mar 2015 15:53:08 +0000https://djvibeinc.com/?p=2519

“It’s just music that I’ve always loved and I wanted it to be out in the world.”

The hold music clicks off and a soft-spoken “Hello” rings through the receiver. On the other end of the line is Richard Melville, the artist better known as Moby. It’s December and the holidays loom on the horizon, but his mind is elsewhere; he’s just wrapped up Hotel:Ambient, a revival of his 2005 album and accompanying performance experience held at the Masonic Temple in Los Angeles.

For years the record had remained under wraps, collateral damage from his often publicized distaste for major labels. A far cry from his festival and radio presence, Moby’s motivation to bring the album to life was decidedly one-dimensional. “I understood that releasing an album of very quiet, instrumental, ambient music — something with neither drums, nor vocals, nor songs — wasn’t going to be a big seller. It’s just music that I’ve always loved and I wanted it to be out in the world. I’d be surprised if it sells 100 copies.”

Art for the sake of art, music for the sake of music – it’s a concept far removed from today’s EDM stars. For four nights in Los Angeles, strange ambient soundscapes bled from the Masonic Temple, set to a visual backdrop from long-time collaborator and friend David Lynch. The show will likely never be reproduced; “It’s very quiet and it requires an audience who is familiar with ambient and electronic music because it is not a conventional show. We may try to do it in maybe one or two more cities but its not the sort of thing we could do as an actual tour.”

Beyond his music, Richard is a pragmatic and highly-analytic artist, musician, and thinker. His free music project Mobi Gratis seeks to alleviate the cost of independent film making; but the platform makes a grander statement about the freemium movement and shrinking label profits. “Owning an MP3 five years from now is going to feel old and out dated,” he scoffs, “the landscape has changed, but a savvy artists will always be able to make a living. The thing that has changed is that now musicians need to know how to do everything. In the past you could do one thing, you could just be a bass player, just a drummer. And now you need to be a composer, DJ, remixer, songwriter.”

In his lifetime he’s seen two waves of electronic music dominate global airwaves, but his thoughts on the latest wave of EDM stars is met with pessimism for the genre’s future; “When I start hearing credible DJs playing Katy Perry remixes, I think it’s definitely time for a change.” The pattern is obvious and he has no problem turning the scene’s mirror on itself. The main stream commercialization of the genre is it’s greatest enemy. “All genres have a similar trajectory; The music always comes from the underground, it gets embraced by the mainstream, it gets corrupted and watered down by the mainstream and then it goes back underground.”

Moby’s also never been an ally of record labels, so when Soundcloud and the major’s squelching of creative freedom enter our conversation, little is off limits. While hate may be a strong word, perhaps vehement distaste reflects his thoughts on their recent tactics more suitably. “Removing content is not the way to protect a label. The labels tried to do it with Napster, they tried to do it with Limewire. A lot of the smarter indies have learned that the way to stay in business to to work with good artists and make good records.” Restricting fans access to content, he attests, has never been successful.

I just accepted a long time ago that if I was going to experiment with music I was going to confuse people.

But what about plans for his own music? His most recent collaborations with Lucky Date and ACTi shocked some of his long time fans, but the term “selling out” is not in his vocabulary. When the topic is broached he remains even-keeled, almost dismissive, towards his critics. To Richard it’s absurd that someone could get angry with an artist for trying something new. “When I was young I played classical, then I played in punk rock bands, then I was a hip hop DJ, then a house DJ. I just accepted a long time ago that if I was going to experiment with music I was going to confuse people.”

Admittedly, he came to work with Lucky Date and ACTi for purely selfish reasons, “I just like making music with people,” he says frankly, “I emailed them because I liked some of their tracks. It’s just a fun and interesting collaborative process. I don’t think about sales or chart success or career development.”

His last official album was 2013′s Innocents, his 11th full length work and a stunning example of his career as an electronic artist — the word producer does not do him justice. The term DJ? A harsh misnomer. “I don’t worry about what types of music I’m making, I’m just making music because it is interesting to me.”

Richard and I wrap up our conversation debating the finer points of the access versus creativity debate. In today’s climate anyone with an internet connection and Bit Torrent can start on their career as a producer. “The laptop revolution did great things for the industry. With so many people making music on their laptops it just makes the chance that much greater that someone is going to make an amazing dance record.” Many of his peers criticize the new wave of electronic musicians, citing that with the barriers to entry so low the music itself has suffered. Moby staunchly disagrees.

“Most older electronic musicians are critical of how easy it is to make dance records today, but I think it is amazing. Sure, making dance records 20 years ago was definitely much more challenging, but that doesn’t make the music better.”